Wheldon wins Italian F4 race one, Nakamura one point away from title

Photo: ACI Sport

Sebastian Wheldon won the opening Italian Formula 4 race of the weekend at Misano from pole.

The Prema driver covered the inside at the start then moved back to the outside approaching turn one, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Maximilian Popov getting into second past Prema’s Salim Hanna Hernandez.

The top two quickly pulled away, as further down the order PHM Racing’s Reno Francot broke his front wing and had to pit.

Jenzer Motorsport’s Artem Severiukhin and VAR’s Marcus Saeter also picked up damage while battling for 11th, meaning they pitted on lap two.

It took five laps for Wheldon to break a second clear of Popov, at which point Hanna was down in fifth.

US Racing’s Luka Sammalisto and Prema’s points leader Kean Nakamura Berta had overtaken him late in lap one, then Nakamura had got into third on lap three by sweeping around the outside of Sammalisto at turn eight.

Sammalisto tried fighting back through the next corners but the job was done.

Although Wheldon set the fastest lap next time by, Nakamura took it from him once he had time in clean air and by lap 10 he was pressuring Popov.

He made his first attempt at a pass into turn 14, then two laps later took the outside line through turn 10 and nosed ahead. His move was complete at turn 12, where he had the inside, and Nakamura then had 3.17s to make up on Wheldon.

The leader responded with two successive fastest laps, and won by 3.541s. By finishing second, Nakamura grew his championship lead to 91 points over the absent Gabriel Gomez.

He will contest the other two ‘group’ races, starting from pole in both, and even if he wins the four remaining races of this weekend Nakamura only needs one point to become champion due to Italian F4’s dropped scores rule.

There was little other action in the top 18 places during race one. VAR’s Dante Vinci went wide into turn one on lap three and very briefly lost seventh to Prema’s Sasha Bondarev, who then got a move done properly on lap eight.

They were later in a train behind Maffi Racing’s Kirill Kutskov, and on lap 11 Bondarev made a bold attempt to get past. He locked up as he went for the inside of Kutskov at turn 10, and succeeded in getting through. Vinci overtook Kutskov too through turn 13.

Popov also came under more pressure at the end of the race from Sammalisto, who stole the fastest lap.

Race results (17 laps)